Through all the changes that have occurred since the beginning of the computer age, there has been one constant, the need for speed. In general, this need has been satisfied in one or both of two methods. The first method involves making the hardware faster. For example, each new generation of hardware, be it processors, disks, memory systems, network systems or bus architectures is typically faster than the preceding generation. Unfortunately, developing faster hardware is expensive, and there are physical limitations to how fast a certain architecture can be made to run.
The second method involves performing tasks simultaneously through parallel processing. In parallel processing, two or more processors execute portions of a software application simultaneously. Parallel processing can be particularly advantageous when a problem can be broken into multiple pieces that have few interdependencies.
While parallel processing has resulted in faster systems, certain problems arise in parallel processing architectures. One problem that arises is that the parallel processors often share resources, and contention for these shared resources must be managed. A second problem is that events affecting the application may occur and one or more of the parallel processes may need to be informed of the event. For example, an exception event may occur when an invalid arithmetic operation occurs. Each parallel processing unit of an application may need to know of the exception.
As a result, there is a need in the art for the present invention.